Indicator update: Foodbank Usage
An update has now been made to the indicator, ‘Foodbank Usage’, with data for 2022-23 now available.
In 2022-23, an average of 134 food parcels were distributed per month by the Shetland Foodbank. This is the highest average number of food parcels distributed per month since we started monitoring this in 2018-19, and equates to 32 more parcels per month than the previous year.
There has been a rapid growth in the number of charitable food banks over the past decade throughout the UK (Bramley et al, 2021). The number of parcels provided between April 2022 – March 2023 by the Trussell Trust, is more than double the amount distributed by food banks in the same period five years ago (in the UK). In Scotland, 2022-23 saw the highest levels of need ever, representing a 30% increase from the same period the year before. Mirroring this, Shetland saw a 31% increase from the same period last year, based on the monthly average of food parcels distributed by Shetland Foodbank.
It is important to note that there is a wide range of other emergency food provision that will be supporting people not captured in the parcel data. There are also people who are food insecure who do not receive support from food banks.
In June 2023, the Scottish Government set out a Plan to tackle food insecurity, improve the response to financial hardship and start to reduce the need for emergency food parcels. The Scottish Government’s human rights approach includes prevention and response. Under prevention comes fair work, social security and reduced cost of living. The response aspect aims to make food banks the last port of call in a crisis by improving access to: emergency financial assistance, money advice and holistic support services.
Updated data, trends and analysis is available on our foodbank usage page.